trevcda

"Just shut up and play when you're told to", in any language, is reason enough for an abrupt departure from that situation. That your efforts are not only unappreciated, but not even acknowledged, is just salt in the wound.

I'm not sure I'd actually do the mod to mine. I don't use it live and have a data disk for back up, although if I were to use live again I'd do it in a heartbeat. It's been several years since I tore down the studio and put it in the garage with all the Hammonds, Rhodes and other vintage keys I'd intended to bring in. But I can sure admire the time and effort you spent on it! I did spend a little time in the seedy under belly of the internet on MMT-8 sites. It took some supreme control to not shout from the roof tops about your new mod! I figured you may not want that kind of attention. I did find out that our own Craig Anderton from here at Harmony Central literally wrote the book on the MMT-8 and HR-16: http://www.mmt8.com/cg.php I'm kind of surprised he hasn't chimed in on this thread. Maybe he's moved on from 28 year old technology? Not me. I fear change!

That is really, really cool! I just wish it made even a little sense to do a small production run with something like this. I haven't haunted an MMT-8 user site lately and don't know exactly how many actually still use the product but I'd bet all four of us would buy one!

Cool! I love stuff like that. If it needs a reset button, you could put to of them in series on opposite sides or at least far enough a part so that it would require a deliberate effort to initiate a reset. Hopefully it will be glitch free.

Don't forget to clean those PITA button membranes and contact surfaces while you're in there! I've been severely pissed at those buttons at times. I'd be interested in seeing those schematics when you're done. Do you have to reboot when you switch banks?

Actually, that why I got all those years ago. It was so "tape like" in its functionality, but so easily manipulated with the ability to edit, punch in and out and merge MIDI tracks down.

I was sequencing 80's/90's pop music. While not as repetitious as an 8 bar rap loop, like most music it had a predictable intro, verse, chorus, bridge and outro. By doing each of those in the part mode, I could sting them together in the song mode and do extended version if needed. You can even mute tracks that weren't in some of the choruses in song mode. I got really good at micro editing on it as well. That was really handy for taming the one wrong note or the note that needed to be a little louder, without re-tracking the whole part. I've written songs on it that I have never played altogether, because once the parts were done, they were put together into a song and played from the sequencer. The only thing I wanted that it didn't have was tempo mapping, but you either do without or sequence the click track with the tempo changes.

Just curious; I keep mine because, well, I already have it from two decades ago. Why are you going this route rather than going with a current software version with a lot more versatility and options?

Like the MMT-8, the Datadisk is an old machine, so as with anything that age proceed at your own risk. You are looking for Version 2.00 SQ or higher, I believe. It's been a long time. The upgrade was easily done by anyone vaguely familiar with electronics and the proper tools. I think the power up screen for the newer version eprom has the "SQ" displayed. The newer version allows you not only to store Sys Ex data, but also record and play full MIDI sequences directly from the disk. Keep in mind that the SysEx files and MIDI files are two completely different formats and not interchangeable. The tape in/out on the MMT-8 was very painfully slow and horribly unreliable for data storage, but until the Datadisk came out, it was the only option. I remember spending the entire 15 minute break at my keyboards trying multiple several times to get it to load the next set. I honestly don't know if a digital recorder will work or not. Rather than working with a continuous linear data stream, I think it may store it in packets, which the MMT-8 may not like when it comes to load data back in. In any case, it will be just as slow and tedious as using tapes was/is. Ebay has the Datadisks for around $100 and theres and SQ on there for $40 and shipping right now. Better more modern ways to do it, but if you want to stay with OEM, the Datadisk is still pretty handy.

I guess makes that four of us! If you have/get a Data Disk and it has the upgrade eprom in it, you can create your sequences on the MMT-8, play them as songs into the Data Disk and then play them directly out of the Data Disk from the disc using it as a MIDI player to your equipment. No load times and reliable... Unless some idiot trips on the power cable.